by Carmen Faye
"What's up?" he asked his friend.
"Oh, just a little strafing and harassment," Rat told him. "Jim wants to draw first blood before sunrise, so we are going to put a bunch of holes into some choice real estate and then catch the late movie. Want to come?"
"What's the movie?"
"Not sure which one, but one of those old Clint Eastwood's, I think," Rat said seriously.
“Oooh, that is tempting and we get to shoot at houses," Cole smiled. "but, have to pass. I have an extremely attractive woman who is delusional enough to seriously like me who has promised sex of the circus act variety inside. Otherwise…”
"Yes, I was given some of the scoop on her, a call girl or something," Rat said, studying Cole's face. When his comment failed to raise an immediate response from Cole, he shrugged and said, "Well, do me the favor and don't trust her too much. She's hot, extremely hot, and over at the end of the bar with Brian, but… still."
"Can't promise that one, amigo. I've already gone past what caution would advise," Cole admitted, "Planning to go much further, too."
Again Rat shrugged, as if this wasn't an important matter to him, which Cole knew wasn't the way of things, as Rat said, "You're a grown man, so I see nothing to complain about."
"Thanks for that, but --"
"But, you weren't asking," Rat broke in.
"Actually," Cole said thoughtfully, "that's a lot cooler than what I was going to say, so I'll go with that, but when I said it, I sounded more like Clint Eastwood than you just did, which brought up the coolness value several degrees."
"I don't think you need to worry much about your coolness value right now," Rat told him. "You're a major topic of discussion, being that you took down Antonio and Davis, together -- in a gun fight, no less. Even I'm close to doing a little hero worship of my own and making sure everyone knows that we are friends and shit. And you know I don't get into that kind of play."
"I cheated," Cole told him.
"Well, shit, of course you did," Rat said with a tone of voice that suggested he was affronted that Cole didn't believe he figured that out already, "I know that much, because you are still walking around without holes in you or leaking everywhere. But who cares? They are dead and you are not. This is a good thing."
"I agree with that," Cole said seriously.
Bikes began starting up across the parking lot. Both of them looked in that direction and then back to each other, "Safe wind buddy," Cole said.
Rat began moving for his bike, "Call me tomorrow," he yelled back to Cole, "we'll do something maybe. Or bring your new friend over for dinner or something. Angie is making a roast and she likes it when you stop by."
"I'll try, but with…" he began to say, but then just shrugged.
"Yeah, sure. Well, try harder," Rat advised and then turned, heading quickly for his bike.
Cole remained where he was, watching the outriders of the club hitting the road with targets in mind, and very little mercy in their hearts. After Rat's bike thundered by, Cole turned and walked into the club.
Scanning the room, he decided that the general mood was much more somber than normal, which he supposed with the news coming down, the mood would then be considered normal. He also decided he needed a beer and perhaps shot, and then some good sex with Nicole. He walked in the direction that Rat said she would be and found her surrounded by Brian and four other men, all smiling and flirtatious.
"Having a good time?" he asked, coming up behind her and putting a hand on her shoulder.
"It just got a lot better," she said as she turned with a blazing smile and wrapped her arms around his neck, "Everything good?"
"Well, except for the possible prison sentence, yeah," he said with a subdued voice.
Her smile vanished with such suddenness the room got darker.
"Kidding," he explained quickly and kissed her, "Everything is fine. Great, in fact. They are no long interested in me, not interested in you at all it appears, and couldn’t care less if the case were closed tonight. Seems Antonio and Davis were not the kind of community members these detective give a shit about."
She slapped his chest lightly with the palm of her hand, "That was not funny. Not at all," she pouted.
"Ah," he mused, "I'll try something different next time."
"Better be a lot funnier than that or I might stick you with a pin while you are sleeping," she warned.
"Maybe we could try that pompoir again tonight," he suggested.
"No, not tonight, not after that joke. I don't want you to feel rewarded. It would only encourage you to dabble and dabbling in those areas of amusement is dangerous. So really, it’s for your own good."
"Of course," he agreed, cynically.
"I could be enticed to explore other areas of pleasure and interest, though," she said with a alluring and very affecting voice while running her hand down to his chest, and exploring in a way that suggested everyone else just left the room.
"Hmm, that sounds hopeful," he mused with a grin.
She nodded slowly, looking him over with lust-filled eyes, "And I'm quite sure you will maintain those feelings of hope right up to the point where you become graphically and overwhelmingly grateful for the level of fulfillment I plan to bring you to," she told him, returning his grin.
"Well, I need a beer and perhaps a shot before I jump into monkey-sex mode. You want another?"
"A coke, maybe. I've had several beers already and a handful of shots," she reported.
CHAPTER TEN
The men who were gathered around her, flirting shamelessly, were giving him greeting smiles and drifting away behind her back, all except for Brian who looked a little uncomfortable with the level of overt flirtation going on between Nicole and him, which made this even more fun for Cole. But now he wrapped his arm across her shoulder and called out to Hank with his order. With his order in, he turned his attention to Brian.
"She give you any trouble? Try to drag you to the mall for a quickie shoe purchase?"
Brian smiled lightly, "Not at all and no signs of any problems on the horizon either. I'm sure that will change in the morning when the smoke clears around the outriders activities tonight, though."
"Yeah," Cole agreed, "I got the impression from Rat that they are going to stir this pot up and shoot up the town."
"In so many words, those were the orders. There are a couple of party dens they are going to hit and a couple of red-light houses, as well. They aren't hitting Gabriel directly, though."
"You sound concerned about that," Cole noted as he put a twenty on the bar and signaled that Hank should keep the change.
Brian made a gesture of agreement, "I am. If you are going to start a war, don't flirt around with it. Kick them in the nuts, put a bullet in the brain, and go home. This tactic tonight only ups the scale of combat, which Gabriel probably assessed as minor. He'll assess it much differently in the morning."
"I've heard that tactical advice before, from trusted and experienced sources," Cole agreed, then added "I believe what Jim's thinking is, if we actually show that we are committed to action and impress Gabriel with the fact that we aren't putting up with his crap anymore, then he'll wise up and drop this shit -- not only with Nicole, but the other crap he's been pulling. If it works, then what the outriders achieve tonight will be all the violence that happens."
Brian looked unimpressed and ordered a beer. When he turned back around to Cole, he said, "First off, I'm behind Jim. Whether I agree or not, I'm in. That said, you can't impress an idiot. I've only met Gabe a couple of times. He's good at business and brilliant at finding talent and promoting for new clients. His call girl service is the best in the city, but since his promotional skills are so high, it really doesn't matter if it is or not. By reputation, it is, which in areas of business such as his, where real evaluations and comparisons can't be made, reputation is reality. He's also vicious and protective of his territory, and makes powerful friends. However, his idea of self-worth is blatantly delusional; it is
clinical. Medication is definitely required. He's insane and I mean that literally. He won't be impressed with the action; he'll be furious that we dared to act, at which time, he'll overreact – and, God, I hope I'm not right about that. In his mind, having Nicole back is not only what he wants, but it is also his God-given right. When you threaten a man like him, you have to be ready to put him down a second later."
Cole thought about what he knew of Gabriel Morelli, which was only what he heard from others. He never met the man; his only contact with that group had been Antonio and then Nicole. Brian had also said earlier that Antonio was the one who kept Gabriel in check and the only one who could. With Antonio dead, the Horsemen might discover just how crazy Gabriel really is. He glanced at Nicole, who had the look of agreement on her face.
Nicole looked up to meet his eyes, "Brian is right. Gabriel simply doesn't believe that he can be wrong or that his little empire can be taken down. These kinds of failure thoughts simply don't register in his mind. He'll be furious at the audacity of what the riders do, not the damage. He literally has no doubt that he can not only engage in a war with you, but he's obviously going to win the war. The first thing he's going to do in the morning is begin making calls and gathering resources. Then he's going to hit the Horsemen. He'll hit you hard and publicly. He'll want the world to know that he doesn't take shit, even from a group like the Horsemen."
Cole downed his shot and then took a long drink from his beer. "God, I hope you two are wrong, but my gut tells me differently. Either way, I've just passed exhausted, which I was at when I got home this evening and I'm now in a new and unexplored fun park of total depletion." Then to Nicole he added, "I think I need a rain check on the monkey-sex."
She smiled and leaned into him, "Monkey-sex can wait. Well, it can wait until morning anyway. Let's get you to bed."
"I'm in the room next door, to the East. If you two decide to hit breakfast before the noon meeting with Jim, I'd like to join you."
"Sounds good. Let's plan on hitting Jacob's Diner at nine," Cole offered.
"Sound perfect," Brian agreed. "See you in the morning."
Cole's last conscious thoughts were on the prediction Nicole made, wondering what would be hard and public enough to attract Gabriel's attention as a target tomorrow. As he went through his inventory of Horsemen real estate, the one place that stood out was the club. It would take some serious balls to hit them there, but if Gabriel was seriously delusional, with a firm belief in his divine right to do as he pleased, it was the only place that made enough statement for the God of Pimps to hit. All of the other places – the strip clubs, the pawnshops, and liquor stores – were minor compared to the club across the street. Nicole was on her laptop, clicking keys. He listened to her for several more minutes, intending to call her to bed, but never made it that far. His weariness from the long ride and everything after washed over him.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Nicole finished her accounting and was both happy with the results and a little sad about them, too. Once she crawled into bed beside Cole, she put her plan out of her head and curled up beside him. If she was forced to admit it, the one thing she did enjoy about the call girl life was that she didn't have to sleep alone most of the time. Being alone in bed was miserably lonely to her.
Having Cole's muscular warm body next to her was so calming and soothing; it surpassed basking in a hot tub. For those long nights she was alone while he was running cocaine from the Chicago Harbor into the mid-west cities, she was not only worried about him, but alone with that worry in bed. Her sleep was fitful and she woke often in the dark by imagined noises and threats.
She had planned out his homecoming much differently than it turned out. It was amazing to her that Cole and Jim were risking so much for her. Maybe she should have left for New Orleans, but after playing the scenario in her head, she realized it wouldn't have changed anything. If Antonio would have found Cole home, without her, then the conversation would have quickly turned to torture and the pain wouldn't have ended until Cole was forced to tell them where she was. The moment he broke, Antonio would have killed him. Cole would have been caught flat-footed at the door with no chance against Antonio and Davis.
The bottom line was leaving Gabriel had no meaning if she couldn't be with Cole afterward. The only place she felt the safe, recuperating sense of belonging was as a child with her mother. When her stepfather came into their house, he ruined her safe refuge from the world. After a few years of his presence, being away from home felt safer than being in her own room. But now she had a new refuge and he was stronger than a house. Now, Gabriel wanted to take this from her. Another insane man was ruining her refuge. She couldn't let that happen.
When shit with her stepfather began, starting close to her fourteenth birthday, she was too young and too inexperienced to do anything about it; she had no means of fighting back. Mama had already shown that she wasn't a refuge against her stepdad. He ruled with his anger and his fist, and Mama couldn't fight back or leave him. Nicole spent many hours before sleep wondering why Mama didn't tell him to go away. It made no sense to her at all.
Looking back on it now, those before-sleep thoughts proved just how naïve and young she really was. Her mother feared sleeping alone, as well, probably far more than Nicole did.
Her mother didn't believe she was beautiful or able to make it as a single mother with three children. Fear, Nicole had learned after countless demonstrations, was a powerful and paralyzing emotion. It made you do things you never believed you were capable of doing. It forced hands and drove wedges into the deepest commitments.
Since running away from Gabriel, layers of blinders, woven by fear, were falling away from Nicole's eyes. While Cole was gone on his run, she admitted to herself that the real reason she never left Gabriel before and never found any pursuit interesting enough to tempt her was that she was too frightened to leave. Not of Gabriel coming after her, why would he?
No, she was terrified of being out in the world alone again. She could have easily hooked up with Max and even thought about it several times, but while Max was extremely rich and powerful, he didn't project a sense of protection. Not like Cole did.
Cole felt protective, and strong and comfortable. He felt committed, as well, and while he might not offer to help fight all of her battles, he wouldn't leave her to face them alone. He would always be there and ready with a hug, and a safe place to rest. Cole attracted her so strongly, her blinders didn't have a chance of blocking him out.
Jim impressed her. He was by far the largest man she had ever met, but even larger was the feeling of pure loyalty flowing out from the man. He not only respected Cole. In a way, he loved him. She felt that same sense of loyalty extend to Brian when he came in the room and even to Hank, the bartender. The tone of his voice and the body language he projected bellowed the clear promise I have your back.
Toward her, he was sympathetic, and open and polite -- also he loved looking at her tits. But he held back the full commitment he extended to the others. Even without his full commitment to her, it made her want to impress him somehow. It made her want to be worthy of his level of loyalty.
His presence gave her the same desire to please as she remembered having toward her own father before he died. It wasn't mixed up with sex or attraction or any of that crap. She didn't have any desire to be a member of the Horsemen, but what Jim offered his men, what he demonstrated with Cole and Brian, was so attractive that it crossed her mind to ask Cole what the requirements were.
She wondered why the man wasn't married. Surely other women could sense the amazing amount of loyalty he projected. He would never cheat on his woman and always come home to her. With that last thought, she had an insight to her question, sensing that Big Jim wasn't looking for a wife, because he already had one.
He had the club, the Chrome Horsemen, who trusted him enough to make him president. A man with that kind of loyalty and protection invested into something he thought of as home, was not
a man whose home you wanted to threaten. The reprisal would be tectonic. She realized then that Jim was all-in with this thing. He didn't do it because of her directly; he did it because Gabriel had proven to be a true threat, by sending enforcers to Cole's house, to come after her. Gabriel crossed a line that Big Jim felt was too bold and too obvious to miss on accident. He could not accept apology at this point any more than Gabriel was capable of contemplating his mortality.
"Men are going to die very soon," she whispered into the dark. This sentence made the commitment to her own plan even stronger and the expenditure an acceptable investment into the life she had fortunately had fallen into.
Besides, one of those men, lying motionless on the battlefield her mind conjured up, might be Cole and she needed to be ten years married to him. Needed to be. Those strange illusions she had with him were too good, felt too right to risk.